| The design and testing of automation systems within a laboratory environment requires the ability to simulate real equipment and operating conditions. A new concept of emulation of operations of heavy equipment in harsh environments on laboratory robotic platforms is currently being developed. In the context of a mining excavator, we would like to use a general purpose robotic platform, coupled with a human-machine interface displaying a graphical model of a real excavator in a synthetic environment, so that the operator gets the impression of operating the excavator when, in fact, he is indirectly operating the laboratory platform. Operator specifications concern the excavator but are translated into the laboratory platform's parameter space. In return, the laboratory platform motions are detected, estimated and translated into virtual excavator's actions and then displayed as such on the human-machine interface. We will focus on this part of the emulation system. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
